a loser's slightly late OMPL BH Review: Week 6
TTTech vs a loser
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TTTech had been changing up his core in his first two games this season but returns to form here, bringing a very familiar group of mons as well as a Solgaleo. Interesting here is the first matchup so far where each team member was a completely different mon.
The game opens up with TTTech leading Imposter Chansey to scout my RegenVest Zyg-C and he gets the slow pivot into Tapu Fini to activate its Toxic Orb. A few turns later he brings Chansey back in to reveal it is Toxic Orb while I activate that of my Regigigas. I know the Imposter can stay in and Core Enforcer Gigas here but I thought this was a good opportunity to hit it with Glacial Lance in case it did stay in and it gets chipped hard (but regens some of it back). TTTech sends out Giratina, who I Nuzzle and then send Dusk Mane out to have its Helmet removed with Knock Off. I use Spikes as he goes to Solgaleo to bounce them back and I'm not sure if he had a feeling here but he switches out to Ho-Oh as I attempt to cheese him with Liquid Ooze Strength Sap. So Dusk Mane heals while Ho-Oh Parting Shots out and a few turns later Orb Imposter gets in on Gigas. This visit is short lived though, as my FC Helmet Palkia forces it out and pivots on Fini with Volt Switch. But TTTech does a good job of keeping momentum with slow pivots and brings in Ho-Oh each time I get Dusk Mane back in.
When his Imposter comes back in on Gigas I make a series of bad plays. Hazards are chipping Palkia and it gets Nuzzled this time and when staying in to heal up, I get a full para and fall in range of a KO from boosted Facade. I'm forced out and TTTech attempts to catch someone on the switch with Nuzzle but my Zyg-C absorbs it and takes a mid roll from Glance, living long enough to force out Imposter with Core Enforcer before fainting. I bring Palkia back in, despite the heavy chip, forcing TTTech to decide between letting me heal or keeping Imposter and he switches to Fini while I full para again. He switches to Ho-Oh and I full para, then he pivots to Imposter and I full para, then he heals with Imposter and I full para again. I'm forced out, keeping momentum on TTTech's side as he Volt Switches on my Dusk Mane to bring in Solgaleo. I probably should have sacked Palkia here but instead bring in Gigas to take a V-create from Ho-Oh. TTTech responds with a hard switch to Imposter who takes 32% from Facade and proceeds to win two Speed ties to knock out my Gigas and stay fairly healthy at 41% overall. This was another bummer for me as Gigas seemed to be able to pressure his team fairly well had Imposter been gone. I respond to this by bringing in Zama-c and make another poor play, not realizing that TTTech would sack Imposter here as it is no longer needed, and predict a switch using Tough Claws LO Wicked Blow to tickle the Imposter and end up taking a massive hit from V-create. Zama-C is KO'd by Life Orb on the next hit, chipping Tina slightly, and this was a big blow to my chances of winning as Zama-C could have pressured every mon but Ho-Oh. Running out of options, I bring in Spectrier to set up with Nasty Plot hoping that he'll switch out. But instead he stays in to remove Mold Breaker with Core Enforcer so that I end up doing 40% to Type: Null instead of 80% and later die to Spectral. I could have used Strength Sap here to elongate the game some, I guess, but Null would have walled me later with Spectral Thief. From here the game is basically over though.
I do blame bad luck on this one for the most part. I mean five full paras in a row on Palkia to cement its demise was really bad for me and losing the two Speed ties to drop to Imposter was also quite bad. However, my Gigas improof was too soft considering TTTech is no stranger to Orb Imposter and I did make a bad play with Zama-C in the end game to make things worse. TTTech also made good plays and was able to somehow avoid Liquid Ooze despite having two Magic Bounce mons and also keep most of my Spikes off the field. Despite his Imposter, I do think the matchup was favored toward me which makes losing like this a big bummer.
Nihilslave vs anaconja
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Nihilslave returns with a very meta-looking team of Regi/Xern with a supporting cast of Ho-Oh and Etern. anaconja makes his season debut and has a similar squad except is using the other Tina and a different Steel-type. An offensive Groudon could be trouble for Nihilslave's team from the looks of things.
The game opens with some scouting, slow pivots, and orb activations on Gigas and Tina-O. The Tina-O tries to hit a predicted switch with Nuzzle while Gigas lays Spikes and then Tina-O just goes for Core Enforcer, hitting Eternatus for big damage on the switch. Etern immediately goes for Electrify, which is rare tech but immediately looks dangerous for anaconja's team as every mon except Imposter Blissey is slower than it. This is also a neat soft check for Nuzzle in Lightning Rod. But anaconja had switched out to bring in Don, who is seen to be Prankster Glare that comes up empty on a switch to Gigas. Nihilslave begins stacking hazards, getting rocks and spikes up, and Magearna gets paralyzed in the process. Gigas is sent out to face Ho-Oh on a double from both sides and anaconja brings in Zama-C, who is KO'd the next turn by V-create after Gigas used Shift Gear. This isn't good for anaconja as now his only mon that resisted both of Etern's STAB moves is gone. With the set revealed fully, anaconja brings in Tina-O to check Gigas with Core Enforcer as Nihilslave brings in Xerneas and activates its Toxic Orb. This was a tough play, as a Nuzzle could have been detrimental for Xerneas but triggering Lightning Rod Eternatus would have been dire for anaconja so he tried to eliminate it on a predict. PH Xern knocks Ho-Oh's boots off and anaconja brings in Xerneas, who is revealed as Pixilate Spin, to face Giratina as a result of double switches on both sides. Here, Nihilslave takes a
massive risk staying in as Xern uses Rapid Spin to clear the hazards but we knew that it wasn't wearing boots due to taking chip from them. This is a big risk because Pixie Plate Boomburst is a coinflip to OHKO Giratina but the Tina lives to see another day as it Worry Seeds the Xern to force it out. A few turns later, anaconja's Ho-Oh Nuzzles Tina and Tina-O is confirmed to carry Hex, meaning it is now a pretty threatening mon to Nihilslave's team. This paralysis comes in handy for anaconja as his Ho-Oh chips it down with Fire Lash and Spectral Thief thanks to two full paras and Nihilslave is forced out and brings in Etern. Instead of going for Electrify, Nihilslave smartly chooses Sludge Bomb to fish for poison as Don is brought in. It dodges poison and fires off Precipice Blades, doing 58% to Xerneas who came in and uses Glare to hit Ho-Oh on a predicted switch the following turn. Nihilslave tries to set Rocks again but we find out that anaconja's Ho-Oh is Magic Bounce and denies them, which I guess kind of makes up for its boots being removed.
Etern comes back in and this time gets the poison on Don, putting it on its back foot and does even more so when it tries to Glare instead of heal and gets forced out at 1/4 of its health. Tina-O gets back in when Gigas comes out and this time it sets up with Nasty Plot. Magearna is brought in and revealed as Prankster with Topsy-Turvy to keep it at bay and manages to spin away Stealth Rock while anaconja switches out. Tina-O gets back in for free against Gigas and Cores it this time, followed by a Hex on Ho-Oh. Wanting to keep rocks away, anaconja switches out Tina-O despite it being in pretty great position to punish Nihilslave's heavily chipped team. After a scare with full paras, Ho-Oh heals up to half its health and Nihilslave has to bring Etern back out to take Fire Lash. Then anaconja has a brain fart and uses Nuzzle on Etern to boost its SpA. It steals it back but is put in range of being KO'd and anaconja is forced to sack Groudon so that Imposter can come in. Imposter doesn't stay in long though as Magearna comes in to scare it out and fires off a Glare that Ho-Oh deflects. This lets Ho-Oh heal but Etern comes back in for free. It manages to stay alive thanks to Black Sludge and resisting Fire Lash, on top of the huge threat of spamming Electrify and sweeping. Gigas again is sent out, meaning Tina-O comes in for free and instead of double switching here Nihilslave stays in and ends up sacking Giratina to safely bring in Xerneas. Xern starts dancing and Nuzzles Ho-Oh but is forced out after having its boosts stolen and Nihilslave brings Gigas back in. But anaconja doubled out as well to bring in Xern, who is all but confirmed as Timid when it outpaced Tina's Worry Seed and it uses Strength Sap on an Adamant Gigas. Xern spins the annoying spike away and Tina-O gets back in and proceeds to hax past Mag thanks to three consecutive full paras.
But this frees an opening for Xerneas to come back in and it starts dancing again. This allows for Imposter Blissey to finally be shown as holding a Toxic Orb and a dance off begins with Xern ahead by one turn. Xern gets fully boosted and beings spamming Moonblast, which chips Blissey to around half its health before running out of Moonblast PP and forcing anaconja to bring in Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh steals the boosts, which repeats a cycle of Gigas coming in on Ho-Oh and Tina-O coming in to face Gigas. This time Nihilslave gets his money worth by spamming Spikes to get two layers while Tina-O sets up. Ho-Oh is sacked so that Etern can come in and anaconja has really no choice but to send in Blissey, who gets a boost from Lightning Rod absorbing Electrify. This was pretty dire for anaconja as a Core Enforcer there meant the game was over, but he isn't out of the woods as Blissey is on a timer due to Toxic damage. Blissey chips Xern with Earth Power but is forced out as it would be KO'd if it stayed so anaconja has to try to spin the hazards to have another shot. He brings in Xerneas while the opposing Xern QD's again, which means Ho-Oh has to come in to check it. Both sides end up doubling out here though, but this time Nihilslave doesn't bring in Regigigas like he had the last several times. He sends out Eternatus instead as anaconja brings out Xerneas, who was hoping to outpace and spin/heal on Regigigas and potentially win after a Speed boost. But Etern is free to click Electrify at this point and the battle is over not long after this.
I thought both sides played this game pretty well and it was definitely a close battle. Mag being KO'd after the full paras was unfortunate and definitely gave anaconja some momentum, but really it was all down to Nihilslave being able to play smartly with Eternatus as it pretty much won outright as long as it dodged Glare. Despite being at a big disadvantage because of this, I thought anaconja made some very smart plays but Nihilslave just made a smarter one when it mattered most.
cityscapes vs xavgb
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We see here that stresh was so distraught by catching his first L to the fish that he ended up bringing it himself. city's team averages mid 90s base Speed though so this could be an issue considering how fast the fish is.
Several double switches kick off this battle, leading to Reshiram facing the likely fish improof, DesoLand Ho-Oh, at +1 thanks to Quiver Dance. It dances again as Ho-Oh hits it with Nuzzle and the following turn Reshiram catches a full para as stresh makes what looks like a very risky switch to Melmetal. Melm stays in to invert the boosts with Topsy-Turvy but still takes big chunk from Life Orb Blue Flare. This leads to both sides switching out and results in city's Ho-Oh being up against stresh's PH Gigas. Then, in likely what is the most surprising turn of the tour so far, both mons Teleport out. Fish gets in and is seen to be Primordial Sea. This could spell trouble for city as we already saw her Ho-Oh was not DesoLand and a paralyzed Resh is now facing it. But the fish only does 24% to it with Flip Turn, meaning Resh is Fur Coat, and it gets forced out the following turn by Xerneas after a full para. Xern just Volt Switches on city's Ho-Oh to bring the fish back in, likely to claim its first kill. It does so by hitting Ho-Oh with Fishious Rend and city responds by bringing in a still unrevealed Xern. This forces stresh to pull the fish, not risking Extreme Speed here, but Xern just uses Boomburst to hit the Ho-Oh switch-in. A few doubles later brings Zama-C in, who uses Heal Bell to help out Reshiram. Xern is brought in to face Zyg-C, who uses Volt Switch to bring in a chipped Melmetal. Instead of healing here, Melmetal goes for a rare Toxic that lands on a doubled-switched Reshiram. The fish is brought back in later on a Gigas Teleport, again facing Xern but not risking being hit with E-Speed as stresh sends out Melmetal who dodges Zap Cannon. stresh is keeping momentum on his side due to the lack of pivot moves on city's end and continues to keep it, getting Ho-Oh in against Celesteela. Predicting a switch, stresh sets Spikes here and gets crit by Aerilate Boomburst from Steela and has to heal up while it has the Spikes spun away.
A few switches lead to a big sequence of turns for the battle where Reshiram is facing Zyg-C. Hoping for a switch, Reshiram Blue Flares, crit-burning the Zyg-C as it is hit with Core Enforcer. Hoping for another switch, Resh uses Strength Sap only for it to be bounced back and it is KO'd by Core Enforcer. city responds by spamming Boomburst with Xern and taking out stresh's Gigas but this only frees up space for the fish to come in and start stacking up bodies to end the game. We later learn that Reshiram was packing Eternabeam, which would have ousted Zyg-C easily but made things tough for it later on as Rend 2HKOes it.
cityscapes brought some neat tech and this is not a surprise, but sadly her cool Reshiram set was up against one of the few physical breakers that can threaten it. I'm sure it was not a good feeling to lose to the fish, but this is why they call it the matchup fish after all.
Career Ended vs quojova
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Career Ended rolls in with a fairly standard looking Regi/Xern core supported by good and spammable mons Groudon, Imposter, and Lunala. quojova throws some spice on the Regi/Xern core recipe by bringing a Heatran. I've said this before but will say it again, looks like an offensive Don could put in work here.
Career leads with Imposter and quojova helps us out by just revealing the Heatran set to be RegenVest with the normal utility moves + Blue Flare. quojova risks taking the Nuzzle by U-turning out on a Groudon switch-in to get the orb activated on Gigas. After several turns of doubles and pivots, we see Career's Lunala is Fur Coat and so is quojova's Zyg-C. Etern is brought in and uses Volt Switch a couple times while Gigas gets a layer of Spikes up and we end up seeing Groudon deny FC Zyg-C's Volt Switch and hitting it for 47% with Glacial Lance. This means Don got the low roll from Jolly Choice Band damage but quojova is free now to bring in the quad resist Heatran and get momentum back. Heatran continues to just pivot on Gigas, as the full set is revealed as Facade / Spikes / Nuzzle / U-turn, and it looks like it can check Career's Zama-C too as it flees after trapping Heatran with Anchor Shot. After Lunala gets Nuzzled, Career makes a nice double to get Groudon in on Heatran for a free turn. With a spike on the field, quojova can't send in Zyg-C unless he prays for two misses so Gigas comes in and takes 81% from P-blades and then Career, for some reason, switches out to Lunala. I say that because Gigas couldn't KO Don from that range unless he got a crit, but this exchange still kinda works for Career as quojova's Xern gets paralyzed and chipped a lot while it spins the spike away. Zama-C comes in to put salt in the wound by bouncing back Xern's Strength Sap and then a double from both sides brings Don in to face a fairly unknown Etern. Etern fires off Draco Meteor, which comes up empty on a Xern switch and follows this by Volt Switching into Heatran. Career also used Volt Switch and gets Don back in, who KO's Xern with Precipice Blades and allows for Etern to re-enter safely. This time Career sends out Zama-C, who dodges Draco, but a few pivots later quojova's Zama-C gets in and Knocks Off Lunala's Rocky Helmet. Zyg-C is brought in on a slow pivot and quojova successfully baits Spikes and sends them back with his own Magic Bounce Zama-C. Career then spends the next several turns spamming Facade on Zama-C, all while getting chipped pretty hard by Fishious Rend and a crit Anchor Shot before pivoting to Lunala. Bringing in Lunala is really the only safe play here considering Career's Zama-C was forced out by Heatran but it works against him as it allows Zyg-C to finally recover its health.
A little while later, after Xern spins the spike and Etern is confirmed as Regen, quojova is spamming Volt Switch with Etern and making doubles for a bit. This repetition pays off as Career ends up trapping and removing Etern's ability and just when he expects a Volt Switch, per usual, Etern pulls out Draco again and nails Imposter switching in. This is big because Imposter is now down to 30% health and won't heal on the switch thanks to the earlier Worry Seed. Imposter does get a shot at healing several turns later, but at the cost of being paralyzed by Heatran's Nuzzle. quojova's Gigas still hasn't revealed its last move until it finally goes for Precipice Blades to tickle Lunala on turn 81. Over the next sequence, quojvoa spams Volt Switch for a while and dodges some P-blades from Don before hitting Imposter with another Draco. The Volt Switch spam really does a number on Lunala, though, who is now at 39% health and still very paralyzed. But it is able to shrug this off a few turns later in front of Gigas when quojova crosses his fingers for some para hax.
More pivots and nothing too interesting take place over the next 40+ turns until quojova's Zama-C stays in to Knock Off transformed Heatran's Eviolite while dodging a Blue Flare. This wasn't like, super detrimental for the battle, but it was definitely a bummer for Career in the moment. One thing that did happen over these now 60+ turns, though, was Lunala's useful PP being used up slowly. Full paras helped a bit but it was basically forced to fire off Hex, Core Enforcer, and use its recovery to keep quojova honest. And Lunala is finally left in a vulnerable position after it was withdrawn at half health and is back under pressure in front of PH Gigas. Up to this point, Lunala had come in clutch and healed when it needed to, avoiding paralysis hax, but I think you know by now what is going to happen. +2 Gigas gets halfway there with Precipice Blades as Lunala gets the full para and is forced out. Perhaps Career should have prayed for a miss, but Imposter comes in an tickles FC Zyg-C with a +2 boosted Facade for 26% and takes more chip from the helmet. From here, Gigas gets back in, Swords Dances again, and is able to clean up for the win.
On paper, Career Ended's Magic Bounce Zama-C checks both Regi and Xern. This is in a vacuum, though, not considering things like +1 Speed Xern with Metronome or, say, Nuzzle Gigas with a dummy strong move like P-blades or V-create. Ultimately, I think Career lost this game when he took out Don in front of a dying Regigigas. Yeah, he could have been crit or missed his attack, but that drained his momentum almost completely and led to the spike being removed and Zyg-C's eventual recovery.
Metagame Observations
Everyone except me and TTTech brought Xerneas, but just our efforts aren't enough to dethrone it as queen of usage. Gigas was used just as much this week and is six total uses behind Xern for the entire tournament. Toxic Orb Imposter has been seeing a ton of usage lately, for better or worse, and finally paid off pretty well in at least one game this week. Ho-Oh saw a tournament high of five uses this week, which isn't surprising given the presence of so much Xerneas.
Spectators
probably have noticed it throughout the tour so far but this week you couldn't ignore the impacts of "yellow magic" on the games. Every game this week had at least one key moment where a full para was a factor. 9.8% of total turns this week featured a full para. Nihilslave was the only player on the wrong side of this hax to end up winning, and it wasn't easy for them as they had to play insanely well to get the win.
Two battles got pretty long this week, which stretched out the average number of turns to 97.
Upcoming Matches
TTTech vs Nihilslave - So far TTTech has proven why you play the more experienced BH player in tours like this. Luck or no luck, sometimes you just pick someone who is good at and comfortable playing in long / stressful games. Nihilslave is having a great tour so far and it'll be interesting to see if he can cook up something werid enough to break through whatever TTTech shows up with.
MAMP vs Tea Guzzler - Tea man gets their OMPL debut here against a tough opponent. I think Tea Guzzler will likely be building this on his own, but still under the eye of stresh, so I'm curious what he'll show up with. Some dummy strong offensive mon with dummy strong moves sounds likely, though. MAMP will bring a good team and give them a tough battle as MAMP is known to do.
cityscapes vs quojova - The highlight match of this week, but all should be good matches. So far cityscapes has lost to cringe Regi/Xern and the fish, while quojova's two losses have been to stresh (which is almost built in) and para hax in a tough battle. Both will be looking to end the regular season on a high note and to help get their teams into the playoffs so expect the A game from both sides here.
Ballfire vs Andyboy - The playoff-eliminated-team matchup randomizer has selected these two play each other. This should most certainly be a battle of Balanced Hackmons, eighth generation style.